home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Best of Select: Games Special 4
/
THE BEST OF SELECT Games Special 4 (Select CD-ROM)(1996).iso
/
tips
/
aplongbw
/
apache.txt
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1995-09-20
|
35KB
|
610 lines
An Unofficial Training Guide to
"APACHE: THE COMBAT HELICOPTER SIMULATION"
by Robin Kim - opus@ihlpf.att.com
_________________________________________________________________
Apache is a complex simulation of a complex aircraft, and as such, can
be a bit difficult to learn. Individual areas of operation are not too
complicated by themselves; the problem is that you must be proficient
in all of them at once to be effective in combat. This article is my
attempt to help new players climb the learning curve more quickly. My
intent is not to rehash the manual, but rather to supplement it by
describing useful techniques, tactics, and other worthwhile bits of
information I've discovered. You should be thoroughly familiar with
the manual to get the most out of this training guide.
The contents of this article are based purely on the knowledge I have
gained by playing this fine simulation and through discussions with
others. Though I did participate in the beta testing for Apache, the
contents of this article should in no way be mistaken as "official,"
and are not endorsed by Digital Integration or Interactive Magic.
All inaccuracies are my own.
_________________________________________________________________
LEARNING TO FLY
If you're more accustomed to fixed-wing flight sims like I am,
Apache's realistic flight model will take some getting used to. In
order to keep from crashing all the time as you become familiar with
how a helicopter flies, I suggest you focus intently on the vertical
speed indicator caret on the right side of the IHADSS display.
Concentrate on keeping it centered as you accelerate, decelerate, and
turn. If your practice area is flat enough and you never let the caret
drop below the 0 fps mark, there's no way you can auger in. Once
you're comfortable doing this, add the digital AGL altitude indicator
to your visual scan, then the airspeed indicator. Your goal is to be
able to monitor all three, which together tell you basically what you
need to know about how your helicopter is flying, and still have
enough brain power left to operate the other systems once the shooting
starts.
I personally still keep one eye on the vertical speed and AGL altitude
indicators whenever I maneuver even though flying the Apache has
become almost second nature to me. I've learned through experience
that unless I'm just cruising steadily along, ignoring them for more
than a second or two when low to the ground invites disaster.
To really be able to control your helicopter properly, it's important
get a feel for how the various aerodynamic effects unique to
rotary-wing aircraft that are described in the manual will affect your
altitude. One practice drill I use to help drive these into my head is
to start off on the ground then take off and accelerate as rapidly as
possible to 150 knots without ever rising above 10' or so (make it 50'
when you're first starting out--it will probably seem challenging
enough!). Because you've got ground effect lift at low speeds and very
low altitudes, you don't want to pull up too much on the collective on
takeoff or you will immediately pop up through your target ceiling.
Pitch forward immediately to get moving and prevent too much altitude
gain. As you bring the collective up to 99% torque, you can lower the
nose a bit further to counter that additional lift plus the onset of
translational lift as you pass 20 knots or so. Keep the nose fairly
steady until you pass 70 knots, then be prepared to nose up sharply by
a small amount as translational lift maxes out and you must redirect
some of the main rotor's thrust which you were using for acceleration
toward just maintaining altitude. If you're not paying attention as
you pass this critical speed, you stand an excellent chance of plowing
right into the ground. From there on up to 150 knots, you need simply
raise the nose very slowly until it is level with the horizon.
Reversing the drill so that you decelerate from 150 knots to a hover
is in some ways even more informative. It is amazing how much
collective you need to add to maintain altitude as you decelerate out
of effective translational lift. Be prepared or be a pancake.
Once you've mastered level acceleration and deceleration, you should
work on being able to do very tight level turns. You will be using
these often in combat, so you want the technique to be automatic,
though as always you should track the position of the vertical speed
caret during turns. My technique is to bank about 45-50 degrees, raise
the nose only a few degrees, apply full anti-torque pedal input in the
direction of the turn, then modulate back cyclic and bank angle to
maintain altitude. If I find myself too high and actually want to lose
altitude, making a 90 or 100 degree bank will do this for me in a
hurry.
The last essential piloting skill is nap of the earth flying. This
shouldn't be too hard once you can do everything else I've just talked
about, you just have to pay closer attention to the AGL altitude
indicator than usual when going up and down slopes; the vertical speed
indicator caret is less useful in these situations. If your IHADSS is
disabled by damage, you'll have to eyeball it since your backup
altimeter displays pressure altitude only. Using the diagonal and side
views can help you determine how close you are to the side of a hill
you're passing over.
When you encounter trees and buildings, you should ideally steer
around them using level turns rather than fly over them, though if
you're preoccupied doing other things or if you're navigating through
thick fog at high speed then it's safer to fly higher. By trial and
fatal error I've discovered that if you fly at 80' or higher you will
clear the stands of trees in the game. The absolute limit may be
lower, but not by enough to matter.
_________________________________________________________________
LANDING
Landing your Apache can be easy or challenging, depending on how
patient you want to be, the prevailing wind, the size of your landing
area, and whether you're landing on a moving ship or on solid ground.
The easiest way to land is to bring your ship to a hover then simply
descend vertically. Because ground effect lift increases the lower you
go, you will find yourself slowly lowering the collective just to
achieve a steady descent rate.
Once you've gotten this down, you can proceed on to making approaches
with a constant angle of descent. These should be done into the wind
if at all possible, and are excellent practice for shipboard landings
even when you do them on land since the visual cues are similar. For a
15 degree descent, first line yourself up with your chosen landing
point, preferably into the wind, then approach it until the point
about half a rotor diameter beyond where you want to touch down is 15
degrees below the horizon (halfway between the -10 and -20 degree
pitch ladder bars in the IHADSS). Descend steadily, pitching back a
bit to decelerate and modulating your sink rate with your collective
such that the spot on the ground you're focussed on remains stationary
between the two pitch ladder bars. If the spot starts to move up,
you're too low so add collective. If it starts to move down, you're
above the 15 degree glide path and must reduce collective. How you
control your deceleration rate so that you end up at 0 knots forward
motion when you touch down is hard to describe, but with practice it's
not too difficult to achieve.
When landing aboard the LHA Tarawa, you can use the same technique of
keeping a spot on the ship just beyond where you want to land
stationary at a fixed pitch angle, but since the ship is usually
moving forward at about 19 knot